Winter Walk Delivers Ice Science Treasure

When walking today, despite our weather being not too cold, the puddles had frozen overnight and a big chunk of ice followed us home for some science fun. Fortunately, Big Sister and Little Sister were wearing mittens so we all took turns carrying it the rest of the way. We brought it in the house in a bucket, so would this qualify as an activity for a bucket list?

First, the kids poked at the ice and talked about it being very cold and freezing. Big Sister explained to Little Sister that ice is frozen water. They looked at the ice with a magnifying glass and noticed some bits of leaves and twigs. The ice got shiny as the top of it began to melt. Next, we put the chunk of ice into a clear container and let it melt some more. Using another container, we popped in an ice cube from ordinary tap water and let it melt. Big Sister wanted to see if the water from the puddle would be the same or different than water from the kitchen. It didn’t take long to see that the water from the ice cube was clear and the water from the puddle had some dirt and ‘stuff’ in it.

How could watching ice melt be exciting? Isn’t that like watching paint dry? This simple idea was quite exciting and occupied the kids for a good part of the morning. The experience was based on their discovery and delight of finding a piece of ice. It included connecting to nature. It was easy to extend the activity by comparing it to an ice cube which only added to the fun. Besides the sensory involvement of feeling the cold, hard ice, the kids talked about how Elsa’s Frozen castle was made out of ice. Do you agree our walk to the mailbox delivered a learning, fun, nature, and science treasure?

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